Sunday, November 25, 2012

Holiday blues already? It may be age related evolution


Forbes/David DiSalvo, Science, technology contributor, , 11/23/12. "Study:  Humans aren't the only apes that have a midlife crisis."

Withdrawal, frustration, sadness — all are considered hallmarks of the human midlife crisis. Until now, the collection of factors cited as bringing on the angst have included societal and economic pressures that exert psychological forces strong enough to bend our lives into the famous U-shaped curve of happiness.

What was he thinking?
But research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences could drastically alter those assumptions by bringing another no-less-ominous factor to the table: biology.  It seems our cousins the great apes also experience midlife crises, and they don’t need the allure of a new Lexus or hair transplants to get them there.

....  The results of these and other questions were analyzed and composite well-being scores were plotted along the apes’ life spans.  As it turns out, they also have a distinctive U-shaped curve, and it looks a lot like ours...  Read Article.

 Related - San Francisco Chronicle/Science/Associated Press/Vanessa Woods, 11/19/12. "Midlife crisis in apes, too, study finds." "Captive bonobos, chimps and orangutans show the same low emotional ebb at midlife as do humans....Several studies have concluded that happiness in human adults tends to follow a certain course between ages 20 and 70: It starts high and declines over the years to reach a low point in the late 40s, then turns around and rises to another peak at 70."  Read Article.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what does this have to do with Pacifica?